Penske fraud scandal: Indycar Pre-500 Black Eye explained

The Super Bowl from Motor Racing is here. It is a racing week at Indianapolis 500, the world's largest individual day sports event from 1911, and everything that leads to this year's big American races was unforgettable.

But there is a lot of what Roger Penske, owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar series, would actually like to forget. Penske also owns the Penske Indycar Team team, which in the series he owns, on the route he owns, and for the second time since April 2024, his team was caught fraud. Two of his three cars, including the 500 winner Josef Newgarden, who was defended by back-to-back and defended, were booted into the back of the field at the beginning of the big race on Sunday.

So what happened?

In contrast to Formula 1, the regulations of Indycar are incredibly strict, as it shows by using a single car supplier for his series. Where McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and the rest of the design and build custom -made cars every season, IndyCar uses a specific formula in which each team has to buy and use the same model of the Italian constructor Dallara.

The majority of the Dallara DW12 for modification, improvement or embellishment is not among the principles of the specific. The chassis that arrives from Italy, and over 90 percent of the parts have to be installed and left for their lifespan in competition.

The Penske team was caught to modify the rear fall structures on two of its three cars, which is not permitted. Penske applied the filler to the seams on the left and right side of the damping areas, as they are called, and accelerates clear over the sides to generate perfectly smooth surfaces for the air, which drives above them at 230 miles per hour.

According to the rule book written by Penske employees of Indycar, the change in the security devices was not permitted and was identified as illegally by employees in Penske's Indycar Technical Inspection Group.

After checking on Sunday during the qualification of the Pole Day, in which the inspectors marked the illegal dampers on the mandatory priority through the tech garage and the team Penske, the cars of Newgarden and 2018 Indy 500-winner-like power, informed the team to bring the cars to the PIT track during the qualification process.

Under the various rules for the qualification, the teams must not work on their cars after the session, but as the TV cameras showed, the Penske mechanics were busy grinding the illegal damper to remove the seam, which was another violation. On the hook for the technical failures and the failure of Pit Lane, Team Penske removed the cars of Newgarden and electricity from the qualification and returned to their garages without doing rounds.

Thanks to an arcane rule that blocked those who were among the 12 fastest cars during the opening stage on Saturday, which were in a run for the pole position for Pole position for Pole position, Newgarden and 12th starting positions for the Indy 500.

Is this the first time that something like this happened?

It wasn't.

In 2024, Penske team was caught being cheated after he got into the software of her cars and switched on the ability of its drivers to use the 50-hp-to-pass turbo boost from IndyCar at any time, which was illegal. The equivalent of F1 would be that a team gives its drivers the opportunity to use DRS outside of the DRS zones to achieve a round time advantage. Penske's team lost the victory in which the push-to-pass pass and its second place was used in the race, and Penske provided his two senior most employees, Team Penske President Tim Cindric, and the managing director Ron Ruzewski from last year's Indy 500.

What was the Fallout?

The new Indycar President Doug Boles, who also acts as President of the Speedway, said on Sunday evening that potential punishments and fines after the race, which is roughly round and a fart in the church, will be held, and on Monday morning he reduced the course. The locked -up start of Newgarden on the 11th was cleared; He was moved to the last row in 32nd. The same applies to Power, which went from 12th to 33rd and finally.

The championship points were charged for their top 12 positions and $ 100,000 for every car. And for the second time in a row, Cindric and Ruzewski were suspended for the event, whereby the suspensions of 2024 come from their team and the suspensions of 2025 directly from the series.

And then Penske pulled the PIN on Wednesday when he fired Cindric, Ruzewski and team manager Kyle Moyer.

What is the consensus in the paddock?

Because it is Team Penske and due to the potential for conflicts of interest and due to the second rules in 13 months, there was not much sympathy among Penske's rivals.

The four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castoneves, the six-time Indycar champion Scott Dixon and the six-time racing winner Graham Rahal were among the most pronounced, but the other eleven team owners were largely silent. Most have a deep respect for Roger Penske. They do not believe that he was involved in one of the fraudulent scandals and a “Hass The Sinn, but love the sinner” approach in the latest situation.

How big is that for Indycar before the 500?

Abc's “Good Morning America” ​​played the case hard during his Thursday segment in the fight against fraud and the dark cloud that it was over the Speedway. It is a less common circumstance in which a big race like the Indy 500, which is not broadcast on ABC or ESPN, receives this type of national attention for positive developments, let alone the type of tomfooler that has been exhibited since Sunday.

When large competing networks earn a niche series like Indycar as the spotlight, especially in the middle of the storm, it is never good for the series. This will not be forgotten within Indycar and in the Annals of the Indy 500.

However, the aggressive shots of Penske signal to the members of the series and the growing fan base that he is serious to tidy up the nonconsal approach that his team followed in the rules of Indycar.

The “biggest spectacle in racing” is here. Let us support our common love for sport and Indycar for celebrating what – on most days – makes it an extremely entertaining experience.